Evolution of spatial pattern of inter-provincial migration and its impacts on urbanization in China

Since China's reform and opening up in 1978, the scale of inter-provincial migration increased sharply, especially from 2000 to 2010. The redistribution of inter- provincial migration has had significant influences on China's urbanization and socio- economic development. Using data from China's 2000 and 2010 censuses, this paper investigates interprovincial migration by describing its spatial patterns and estimating its impacts on urbanization development with various indictors, such as geographic concentration index,gravity center of migration, composite index of migration, network analysis, and coefficient of variation. The results are as follows: 1) There have been escalating dispersion trends for the distribution of in- and out-migration, especially the out-migration. At the same time, the gravity center of in- and out-migration both move towards north and east. Besides, the destinations of migration has shifted from one single polar(Guangdong) in 2000 to multi- polar(Guangdong,Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Beijing, Fujian) in 2010; while Anhui, Sichuan, Henan and Hunan become the new top four sources of migration in 2010. 2) With the rapid growth of floating population, the network trend of inter- provincial migration is more prominent. Overall, the migration network of 2010 becomes more compacted, connective and balanced than that of2000. At the regional scale, the migration of population is mainly from central and western to eastern China. The eastern region become the main destinations, while the central and western regions of China have become the main sources of inter- provincial migration, especially the mid-belt subsiding is more prominent. At the provincial scale, the increased migration flows mainly to Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Beijing, Tianjin, Fujian, etc. Besides, the migration flows formulate different models due to the effects of regional development disparities,migration distance and migration stocks. 3) The regional types of inter- provincial migration could be divided into four kinds: active regions have a larger floating population and their inmigration is much more than out- migration, which is mainly located in the eastern coastal provinces and Xinjiang; active regions have a larger floating population and their out-migration is much more than in- migration, which is mainly located in the central and western China;active regions have a larger floating population and their in- migration is nearly equal to outmigration; inactive regions have a smaller floating population, such as some provinces with a large ethnic minorities population. 4) Inter- provincial migration has a positive effect on the development of urbanization. It contributes to 18.13% of the increment of urbanization rate and it also narrows the disparities of urbanization rate among provinces, during 2000- 2010.However, migrant workers account for most of the inter- provincial migration, and make great contributions to the development of urban socio- economy, but they cannot share the same identity with the citizens due to the household registration system. Therefore, it is necessary to accelerate the reform of household registration system and promote the citizenization of migrant workers.